Just leaked today was the announcement that Star Ocean: The Last Hope, the fourth installment in the series, is no longer an Xbox 360 exclusive. This isn’t much of a surprise considering Tales Of Vesperia, and Eternal Sonata followed this path as well. For those who are unaware, most of the RPGs slapped onto the Xbox 360 as exclusives usually only stay there for a year. At that time they then transfer to Playstation 3 after some additional development considering the newly found space they have on the Sony made console.

In relation, the reason why this is happening more frequently is becoming clear. Development on the Xbox 360 is generally cheaper considering the hardware, and most RPG developers & publishers are aware that RPGs do not sell well on the console. As such, many of them take the money Micro$oft shoves them, for being an exclusive, and uses it for Playstation 3 development as well as getting past the low sales of their game. Of course, this is a cop-out of sorts despite being a wise loop-hole. As such, Sony also demands the new game comes with extra features. It’s a backlash of sorts onto all the people involved, and while quite hilarious, it also gives Playstation 3 gamers something to shove into their friend’s faces.

From what is known so far about Star Ocean: The Last Hope is it will take the title of International on the end. Ironically, Square-Enix does this to their Final Fantasy series and is usually released with extra material. As such, they’ve somewhat disguised what has occurred, but luckily this new version will offer English dialogue. Whether the menus or other parts of the game are also translated is yet to be heard or seen. Considering they are adding English dialogue I would guess that a North American release date wouldn’t be too far off.

Personally, this is great news for me as I am a major fan of the Star Ocean series. I’ve played First Departure, Second Story, and Till The End Of Time. They each had their own quirks, but by far Second Story was my favorite. I have two copies for original Playstation game as well as the remake for PSP. It’s something I’ve played so insanely for years, I can state truthfully I’ve received all the endings in the game. By far one of my favorites of all time. Though… from what I hear The Last Hope isn’t as good, but even so it’ll be nice to see an improved version.

I recently found that Jonathan Klein was the lead vocal producer for the game. Apparently they never went and matched lip flaps as so many Japanese studios promise. So hopefully this will be fixed in the future, or New Generation Pictures will be apart in adding any new vocals to the game.

Sources:

• Kotaku – Star Ocean 4 Sails Onto PS3
• Sankaku Complex – Star Ocean 4 PS3 Confirmed: Xbox Betrayed, Sold, Lost!
• Sankaku Complex – Microsoft Funds PS3 Development